By IRNA,
London : Britain’s mainstream Muslim umbrella organisation has expressed its “deep reservations” about the government’s latest plan to create a government-funded board of theologians to prevent Islam being abused by extremists.
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) also criticised why Islam was being singled out in what it called a “top-down initiative from sections of government who have been seeking to marginalise large segments of the British Muslim community Muslims.”
“For too long now, British Muslims have been viewed by this government through the narrow prism of security,” said MCB secretary general Abdul Bari.
“British Muslims – like all citizens – have every right to peacefully disagree with government policies if they wish and they do not need to be ‘re-programmed’ by a government-approved list of theologians,” Bari said.
The latest plan to establish a board of around 20 leading Muslim scholars and community leaders, who have yet to be named, was announced by Communities Secretary Hazel Blears on Friday.
The board will examine issues relating to Islam in a modern context and how that fits with being a citizen in the UK, Blears said in launching a government report on ‘Preventing Violent Extremism:
Next Steps for Communities’ in Manchester, northern England.
MCB questioned the government’s claim that the initiative came from the country’s two million Muslim community, saying “scepticism for such an idea will resonate not only amongst Muslims, but wider British society.”
“In a country where the state is largely neutral on theological matters, and where no other similar arrangement exists for other minority faiths, such an initiative will inevitably be met with scepticism and mistrust,” Bari warned.
On Friday, Muslim News editor Ahmad Versi accused ministers of trying to interfere in the Muslim community on religious matters and warned that other attempts to have a state-controlled version of a had “no credibility.”
“It proves that the whole strategy of the UK government is to target not just Muslims but Islam itself,” Versi said.
“It is not targeting extremism but the Muslim community, including now on matters of Islam,” he warned.
The MCB, which embraces over 500 affiliated national, regional and local organisations, mosques, charities and schools, said it had argued that the government’s counter-terrorism strategy was mis- guided.
“The most productive way to tackle extremism is to improve upon civic engagement with all communities, to work towards eradicating prejudice and discrimination against all sectors of society and to pursue policies designed to increase social justice both at home and abroad,” it said.
Bari also referred to the government’s controversial decision to reverse its previous policy more than two years ago by trying to exclude the umbrella organisation at the expense of cooperating with selected fringe groups that support its policies.
“Our disagreement with government is now regarded by some as extremism and we appeal to all reasonable minded people to stand firm in opposing such dictatorial and unhelpful positions,” he said.
But dispute the rebuff, the secretary general repeated that the MCB “remains committed to work for the common good of the society at large.”